Cycle to Work Day was the biggest yet

The Cycle to Work Day phenomenon proved to be in rude health this year, with the number of riders taking part rocketing by more than 15,000 commuters. 

Taking place on Thursday 3rd September, the national event saw:

• 32,763 riders in 2015 compared to 17,472 riders in 2014
• 489,674 miles in 2015 compared to 261,315 miles in 2014
• 872 employers in 2015 compared to 394 employers in 2014*

All across the UK, hundreds of employers representing 1,043,965 staff joined in a day devoted to celebrating utility cycling and boosting health and wellbeing in the UK. Employers who took part included Tesco, Halls of Scotland, Aberystwyth University, The Landmark Practice, Good Energy, Danco plc, Retail Assist, Bike & Go, Cambourne Business Park, Cornish Mutual, and Councils such as Hartlepool Borough and Bath and North-East Somerset.

Plenty of bike retailers got in on the action: Cycle to Work Day has thanked all the independent bike shop retailers from across the UK for their support and who to those who offered Free Bike Health Checks. A few of the retailers who took part in the day include Chain Reaction Cycles, Primera Sports, AW Cycles, Go Outdoors, Giant, Ben Hayward Cycles, Edinburgh Bicycle Cooperative, Broadribbs, Chevin Cycles, Wiggle, Cycle Surgery, Leisure Lakes, Hargroves, Dales Cycles and JE James Cycles.

Activities taking place on Cycle to Work Day range from TfL giving free access to Santander Cycles in London, Britain’s Biggest Bike Breakfast – offering colleagues a coffee and croissant, or a juice and fruit, after cycling to work – to arranging guided rides, Dr. Bike sessions – trained mechanics or enthusiastic cyclists who perform ‘health checks’ on bikes – to competitions for staff to win cycling prizes.

Venues for activities included a free bike breakfast and servicing at one of London’s famous markets, Spitalfields in East London, to a bike-in cinema at Northern Monk Brew Co. in Leeds and a free bike breakfast at The Tiny Tea Room in Rodley, along the picturesque Leeds to Liverpool canal.

Social media highlights on Cycle to Work Day include trending on Twitter for 8 hours, with 24,697 tweets with a reach of over 45 million, 1,000 stories shared on Facebook, and the organisers receiving over 5,000 photos.

Cycle to Work Day featured on dozens of UK TV and radio programmes with Denise Van Outen, television presenter and an enthusiastic cyclist who has completed charity rides in India, Vietnam and Cambodia, and Sir Cary Cooper, professor of organisational psychology and health at Manchester Business School who provided expert analysis on Cyclescheme’s poll of over 1,000 people about the relationship between work and health and wellbeing.

Competition winners are Ade Roberts, Lee Burling and Ginnette Richell, who each win a Claud Butler bike for pledging to ride on Cycle to Work Day; Joel Ryan who wins a free 12 month membership to FitnessFirst.com, a leading health and fitness club who provided free showers at all of its UK gyms on Cycle to Work Day for riders; and Laura Weatherill and Vincent Campbell who each win a Claud Butler bike for the best photos taken on Cycle to Work Day itself, as judged by Elaine Curtain of road.cc, a leading cycling magazine. More winners result from a 12 day prize countdown on Twitter and Facebook. The full list of all winners can be viewed at https://www.cycletoworkday.org/winners.

Launched by Cyclescheme.co.uk the campaign aims to see a million people get on their bikes to work by 2021 and is supported by British Cycling, Santander Cycles, Sustrans, the Bicycle Association, Act TravelWise, CTC and the London Cycling Campaign.

*Cycle to Work Day 2015 Pledge Statistics
32,763 riders
489,674 miles
872 employers representing 1,043,965 staff
460 Independent Retailers
In addition, more people will have taken part in the event without pledging on the Cycle to Work Day website at www.cycletoworkday.org

Cycle to Work Day 2014 Pledge Statistics
17,472 riders
261,315 miles
394 employers
479 Independent Retailers